‘Pocket Hercules’By GEORGE VECSEYJuly 22, 1996
ATLANTA-Naim Suleymanoglu of
Turkey became the first weight
lifter in history to win three gold medals,
and he also set a world record, in the 141-
pound competition today at the Summer
Games. Suleymanoglu, known to the
world as Pocket Hercules, won in one of
the most dramatic confrontations possible
as he and his closest rival, Valerios
Leonidis of Greece, traded three straight
world-record lifts. Not quite 5 feet tall,
Suleymanoglu snatched 3241/2 pounds and
then raised 4133/4 in the
clean-and-jerk for a total
of 7381/4. Leonidis failed
in his final attempt for
the gold medal, but did
set his own world record
in the clean-and-jerk in
his next-to-last lift.

When Suleymanoglu
was in New York three
months ago, he was
asked who his biggest
competition would be.
He said, in two of the few
words he used in
English, ìthe Greek.î He
was right about that.
Leonidis matched him
right up to the final
attempt today in a competition
that had the joint
rocking. The championship
was held in the
cavernous basement of
the Georgia World
Congress Center, an
exhibition hall hard by
the Georgia Dome. The
two Greek weight lifters
had a large cheering section,
and they played to
the crowd, particularly Yorgos Tzelilis,
who alternately pounded his chest and
waved his palms toward the heavens, asking
for more cheers.

The first half of the competition was
the snatch, in which the bar is raised from
the floor to the overhead position in one
motion. The lower-rated lifters risked hernias
and falling bars first, and then the
favorites took over. Leonidis went first
and lifted 308 pounds. At 4:45 P.M.,
Suleymanoglu strode to the floor and lifted
319 pounds. At 4:50 P.M., Leonidis
came back and lifted 319. At 4:56 P.M.,
Suleymanoglu came back and tried 3241/2
pounds but never got it above his waist
and dropped it, almost daintily. At 4:59
P.M., Leonidis could not raise 3241/2
pounds but he was still ahead of
Suleymanoglu because of his lower body
weight, nearly a pound and a half less. At
5 P.M., Suleymanoglu raised 3241/2 pounds,
held it and then dropped the bar before
raising his two fists nearly shoulder high,
an extravagant gesture for him. He had
the lead halfway through.

The second half was the clean-andjerk,
which involves two motions, one to
the shoulders and then overhead. Again,
the bottom half of the draw went first. At
5:45 P.M., Suleymanoglu, with little emotion
or extra motion, lifted 396 pounds. At
5:48 P.M., Leonidis equaled him. Then two
announcements were made: Juan Antonio
Samaranch, the president of the
International Olympic Committee, was
present, and Suleymanoglu would try to
raise 407 pounds, which would be a world
record. Suleymanoglu came out and
promptly set the world record, then pointed
to himself.

This is the third time the world has
turned on the television and discovered
Naim Suleymanoglu. He was born into the
huge Turkish community in Bulgaria and
came up through the Bulgarian youth programs.
Turkey paid $1 million to Bulgaria
to facilitate his changing citizenship in
1988 in time for him to be eligible for the
Summer Games. Now he has accumulated
46 world records and 232 gold medals,
including three Olympic championships.
Asked if he was the greatest lifter in history,
he said people would have to make that
judgment for themselves.

Associated Press

Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey at the Atlanta Games. A shade under 5 feet tall
yet able to lift almost three times his bodyweight of 141 pounds, he won gold medals in three straight Olympics.Runners Up

1990: Greg LeMond of Medina, Minn (see July 23), who in 1989 had overcome a gunshot
wound to return to competitive cycling, came back from a serious viral
infection in April and a 105th-place finish in the Giro d'Italia in June to win his
third Tour de France in five years and second in succession. He finished 2
minutes 16 seconds ahead of Claudio Chiappucci of Italy.

1976: Kornelia Ender, 18, of East Germany, equaled her own world record in the
100-meter butterfly and broke the world mark in the 200 butterfly within the
space of 27 minutes at the Montreal Olympics. She won four gold medals in
the Games. Enders's feats were tarnished in 1991 when former East German
coaches confessed that their swimmers had trained with anabolic steroids
(see Nov. 24).

1991: Kari Castle, a 31-year-old hang glider, took off near Lone Pine, Calif., in the
Sierra Nevada, caught repeated gusts of hot, light air and, dangling in a
harness from the tiny craft's underside, landed 210 miles away near Austin,
Nev., 8 hours 20 minutes later. She became the first woman to glide more
than 200 miles, reaching a height of some 16,000 feet.